


Behind the Masthead

by Starships_and_Stopwatches



Category: The Social Network (2010)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mentions of Rape, Physical Abuse, References to actual scenes, Sexual Abuse, Verbal Abuse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-31
Updated: 2016-07-31
Packaged: 2018-07-28 08:51:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7633807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starships_and_Stopwatches/pseuds/Starships_and_Stopwatches
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eduardo loses something at the Facebook Headquarters the day he finds out his shares are being diluted. After many phone calls and emails are seemingly ignored by both the Facebook staff and Mark himself, Eduardo visits the offices himself and is left terrified by what he finds.</p><p>or</p><p>Eduardo finds out that Sean Parker is a terrible abusive human being and helps Mark escape. </p><p>WARNING: includes triggers for abuse, stay safe y'all</p>
            </blockquote>





	Behind the Masthead

Eduardo couldn't be less excited for the evening ahead of him. He had called the Facebook HR branch multiple times to try to prevent this from happening, but they hadn't been too accepting of phone calls from the exiled co-founder. In fact, they had only answered his calls once (during which they were actually ruder than Eduardo had expected, and he had thought he had expected the worst). During this, they extremely were unhelpful in solving the problem he had called about. After this incident, they let all of his following his calls go to voicemail. Suspecting that Mark was behind this, Eduardo had then started messaging the CEO directly, attempting to dig out some of the feelings he hoped Mark still had inside him for his past best friend. But Eduardo's hopes were dashed when Mark did not reply to any of his seven emails, so he decided it would be best to show up in-person with a goal in mind and a no-nonsense attitude; Which didn't actually seem that easy anymore as he got out of his car in front of the Palo Alto offices. 

  
As he sat in his car in the Facebook HQ parking lot, Eduardo let his mind wander. He had never thought Mark to be heartless and ignore him like this; besides, Eduardo's seventh email hadn't even been about the problem he had first messaged about. Instead, it had held a short message that read, "I'm worried about you. Are you okay? Please write back. -Eduardo". And though he may have been attempting to appeal to Mark's arrogance at first, Eduardo really did feel genuinely concerned by his old friend's hostility (passive or not). He worried that something had changed Mark to be like this, that something was wrong; but mostly, he feared that this was a new side to Mark's personality, and that Mark would continue to treat him with this level of contempt. Pushing these thoughts aside, Eduardo got out of his car and headed towards the main entrance of the now-ominous office building. 

  
Now, what problem could have possibly warranted several calls and emails and a reluctant visit to Facebook HQ? Well, Eduardo had lost a keychain. Yes, that's right, a keychain. And though that may seem like a very trivial thing to anyone else, it definitely was not to Eduardo. See, this trinket was from Mark and Eduardo's shared Alma Mater, Harvard University. It held a strangely strong sentimental value with him, saying as he bought it the day he and Mark met. Actually, it could be considered the reason they met. If it weren't for Eduardo's sudden need one day for a small piece of metal hanging from a chain to pledge allegiance to his school, he wasn't sure he would have actually ever met the scrawny little tech geek he had called his best friend. 

  
As he neared the front doors, Eduardo began to wonder if Mark had found the keychain after receiving his emails or had even bothered to look for it. He guessed Mark _had_ found it, since he believed he lost the keychain near Mark's desk or somewhere else in the main office space. But this realization unsettled Eduardo more than it relaxed him; Mark most-likely knew the sentimental value the keychain held for Eduardo but had made no move to return it (well, in this case, no reply). As lingering thoughts of why Mark would withhold such a special object from him danced in the back of his mind, Eduardo realized he had reached the front doors of the building and had even subconsciously curled his fingers around the handle. Taking a deep breath in a last attempt to calm himself, he opened the doors and took a step inside.

  
Looking around the familiar yet not-too-familiar room, the first things that caught Eduardo's eye were the lone security guard asleep in a chair in the corner and the unoccupied space behind the front desk. He started towards the security guard at first, unsure of what to do, until a small thought tapped at the back of his mind: 'This could be my only chance to see Mark again' he thought. Spurred by this new realization, he quickly changing his course to the elevators across the way. He noticed that he was suddenly filled with what he at first thought was anxiety, but momentarily realized that the feeling was the familiar excitement he used to feel when he went to go see Mark back when they were close friends. Damn, he hadn't felt that in a long time. 

  
Reaching the elevators in a few long strides, Eduardo was almost deterred by the worn-looking keypad in between the two of them. It was a simple but effective method of security, most-likely to used keep unwanted visitors like Eduardo out of the offices. Now, it most-likely worked for those people _like_ him, but when it came to the case of Eduardo, the co-founder still had a few tricks up his sleeves. He was the former best friend of the CEO, of course. Looking at the keypad, he tried to see which buttons had been pressed the most. It was a simple four-digit code he needed, going off of the four spaces at the top of the keypad. At first glance, none of the numbers seemed to be more worn than the others; but on a closer, more scrutinizing look, Eduardo noted the small indentation in the 2 key. He thought in vain about what four-digit code containing the number two could possibly stand between him and his keychain… and Mark.

  
Eduardo bit down on his lower lip as a revelation hit him. The code was most-likely Mark’s decision; and if there was anything Eduardo knew about Mark, it was that everything he created had to mean something to him. _Nothing_ Mark willingly took part in was ever half-assed or meaningless — this even applied, in some cases, with conversations. If Mark felt a project (or conversation) he was involved in was of no significance, he would simply leave or cease all effort towards participating. But this was _Facebook_ — well, the security of it at least. It was something that Mark would want to protect, so of course the code doing just that simply _had_ to have meaning. So, Eduardo racked his brain for any four-digit number containing number two that could possibly hold any significance with the CEO. He stood there in exasperation for several minutes, rubbing at his face with his hands in frustration, until it finally hit him.

  
“2002!” he said aloud, which earned him a small grunt and the sound of rustling from the corner where the security guard was sleeping. Eduardo cringed and turned around, ready to be caught and escorted out. But, to his surprise, the guard had only shifted in his chair and continued to snore softly. Eduardo let out a small sigh of relief and returned to the keypad.

  
“Moment of truth,” he whispered to himself as he punched in the number. Sucking in a breath, he pressed the return key. There was short pause, and then a beep as the light on the top right turned green and the pair of elevator doors on his left opened. He let out a small sigh of relief. Of course it was 2002, it was the only number that made sense. It was the year Mark had started at Harvard. It was also the year that he and Mark had met, but Eduardo tried not to think about that being the reason Mark set the code to that year. He let out another sigh and, with one last look towards the doors and snoring security guard, stepped into the elevator. 


End file.
